 Poster: A snowHead
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My youngest will be not quite 3 when we go sk-ing in early April next year. He already rides and controls a bike without stabilisers and is a very have a go character. Rather than leave him inside in a creche all week I wondered if there are any resorts that have a ski kindergarden that would at least provide an introduction to ski-ing for him? Given it's April we'd need somewhere that had some decent altitude North facing runs or the rest of us would be water ski-ing all week.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Your son sounds rather adventorous for a 3 year old.
Montgenevre, it is with ESF. They have a ski creche which has a wonderful ski instructor Thomas there most afternoons.
http://www.montgenevre.com/accueil.html?&L=4
http://www.montgenevre.com/354.0.html?&L=4
http://www.montgenevre.com/ptits_bouts.html?&L=4
The altitude is 1800 and last year had very good snow at that time of year.
KINDERGARTEN «Club Piou Piou» (3 to 5)
First steps on skis in a safe enclosed area with a moving walkway, roundhouse, and drag lift. Open every day from 9 to 12am and from 2 to 5pm, except Sunday morning and Saturday afternoon outside French school holiday periods.
half-day (morning or afternoon): 24 € – Day: 36 €.
6 half-days: 108 €.
6 days (excl. lunch): 155 €.
6 full days (please provide a lunch box): 230 €.
The Jardin des Neiges in Montgenèvrehas been designed precisely for this purpose, and is open
all winter to give 3 to 7 year-olds a fun-based introduction to the joys of winter sports. The whole
area has been specially equipped and made safe for them. They use a downsized travelator and ski-lift to help them become familiar with these mechanical aids.
They also have a specially-designed winding miniboardercross course on which to find their feet, with raised turns, mini-bumps and a sports circuit suited to their size and skis. At the end of the week, your kids will be able to use the ski lift, ski downhill with proper balance and snowplough to a halt. As an incentive, they also have the chance of winning the Piou-Piou medal.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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bloody hell, that makes it even more amazing. Im sure he will be able to go into that even if he is 2.
All the other kids will be french though
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| ski-finder wrote: |
| My son is currently 2, but i'm itching to get him on the slopes. Has anyone else got their kids started at 3 years old? |
As long as you can keep your expectations in check - you won't have them doing more than a few minutes sliding at a time, and always stop if they're not enjoying it - there's no reason why you can't introduce the idea of skiing well before 3. This was junior #1 at 10 months! (other pics in the album show progress up to about 4.5 years).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Silver Star and Big White (BC, Canada) do "Daycare Plus" sessions. These are like a full day (or half day) of nursery, plus a 1hr private lesson. Whilst they say "from 3", son#1 did it at 2.5 m - although we'd had him on skis over a year by then.
And lift tickets for the under-5s are free too.
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| Okanagan wrote: |
| ski-finder wrote: |
| My son is currently 2, but i'm itching to get him on the slopes. Has anyone else got their kids started at 3 years old? |
As long as you can keep your expectations in check - you won't have them doing more than a few minutes sliding at a time, and always stop if they're not enjoying it - there's no reason why you can't introduce the idea of skiing well before 3. This was junior #1 at 10 months! (other pics in the album show progress up to about 4.5 years). |
what a cute photo
who knows those 2 might be the future GB ski team!
Wish i started skiing at that age
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parkski, If not yet 3 then it will depend on how struct the ski school is about ages. We have friends who just put in for ski school and told them their son was 3 and this worked OK. If you need to leave for the creche/day care then you may have to produce 'health book' which would give their age away. Basicall y with most ski school sthey have the age as 3 and over as by then most kids are dry during the day and have less accidents. If you go in a quieter week you are also more likely to get away with it!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Okanagan, thoroughly appreciate that I just think it would be good to get him used to it as early as possible. You see all the little ones whizzing down the mountains with no fear and a wonderfuly low centre of gravity and wish you'd learnt then too!! 
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ski-finder, I started skiing at 3, (15 years ago) and loved it as far as i've been told!!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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parkski, My daughter started at 2 at La Clusaz with ESF - private lessons only at first though. I think Avoriaz do it too at Annie Famose.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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if they can walk they can ski.
most if not all ski resorts cater for young skiers.
if you want them to snowboard you need to wait till they're 5
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parkski, your son does sound really adventurous. Does he have some older brothers that he's chasing after?
We put our daughter (who isn't quite as brave - still has stabilisers on her bike!) on skis at age 2 but she wasn't strong enough to stay upright so I just slid about with her holding her up. We then had some private sessions with a friend last year when she was 3 and they went much better although the attention span was quite short and she preferred running about in her ski boots. This year now that she has just turned 4 (a couple of weeks ago) we're doing some 1 hour sessions at Milton Keynes and she's going into Adventure Camp in Whistler in December and January. I agree with Okanagan that you need to keep expectations in check and go at their pace. Stop when they get bored and don't force it. For us it's been all about keeping it fun because we want her to enjoy it. If Adventure Camp doesn't work the first time and she's unhappy then we won't make her complete the course and we'll do something else with her.
By the way, I've skiied Whistler several times in April and it's been great higher up. The Childrens' Centre is at mid-station so no problems with snow for them either. You can't always ski out to the village at this time of year but that's never been an issue for us. The downsides are the jetlag and the long flight. However, our daughter has been there every year since she was born and it's not put us off! 
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You know it makes sense.
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How did you find flying with her when she was a baby? We've got twins and even flying a couple of hours can be a real challenge. 10+ hours cooped up in a metal tube doesn't really appeal 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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We introduced both of our girls to skiing in Whistler when they were 3. As I recall, the rule there is that they will take them as long as they are out of nappies.
The classes in Whistler for children of that age are basically creches with some snow fun thrown in. I don't mean that disparagingly; quite the opposite. Kids of that age will get very bored/cold (even in Spring) if they are made to stand around waiting for something to happen. Ski school gets them out for a bit of sliding (I hesitate to call it skiing) in the morning and a bit in the afternoon. Also bear in mind that when they are small there's more kit and helmet than there is child.
Jetlag is fine. We've been taking them twice a year (winter & summer) to Whistler since they were each a few months old, so they are used to it. For parents who feel like it will be a dreadful experience, I have a few simple suggestions that I always trot out: (1) drug 'em. We used to drug them pretty remorselessly with Calpol at strategic moments to ensure that they got a few hours sleep on the flight out and as much as possible on the flight back. And sometimes we would continue the treatment for a few days after we got back. (2) entertain them. Check the inflight movie schedule on the plane. If nothing was suitable, we would pack a portable DVD with selection of films. Ipods loaded with spoken stories are now their preference (they are 6 &  . Colouring books and a selection of crayons is a good idea. Like geetee we have done the small presents/snacks as well. (3) drum into them before the flight that airports and aeroplanes are places for utmost best behaviour. (4) get into the new time zone asap with a regimented day. Skiing/ski school is perfect for this. It is essential to feed them before bedtime. If they wake up and they're hungry at 3 in the morning, you're dead meat.
Going skiing with very small children can mean compromises. We found when they were small they couldn't take 14 straight days of skiing on the trot, so we'd take more days off than otherwise would have been the case: skidoo-ing, a trip to the swimming pool, ice skating, dog sledding, indoor rock climbing are all available in Whistler. I'm sure a lot of resorts have similar sorts of things if you hunt around (certainly post-kids we realised that we had rather tunnelled vision pre-kids, focussed exclusively on skiing). I was quite surprised to find how quickly they switched to wanting to ski every day.
Good luck. It's worth the effort to get them skiing early.
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